that persecuted servant of His, sent up that little cloud, no bigger, at first, than a man's hand, which, swelling rapidly over the whole heaven, poured down its torrents on the blasted land before Ahab in his chariot could reach Jezreel, to tell Jezebel the news of her slaughtered priests. That long drought of three years was probably the most dreadful visitation of this kind with which God punished the disobedience of His people: but the writings of the prophets abound in instances of the same sort: they every where state that the necessary rains were withheld in anger, and would be poured down abundantly whenever the nation returned to its God. When "thine ears shall hear a word behind thee," says Isaiah, "saying: This is the way; walk ye in it: when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left . . . then" (when, that is, ye listen to that voice) "he shall give thee of the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous;" and so on. "I have withholden the rain from you," says the LORD, "when there were yet three months to harvest; and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city; one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. And two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water, but they were not satisfied; yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the LORD 2." The object, you see, which God aimed at, was the repentance of the people; their being induced to return unto the LORD. I will quote but one more of the many passages of this kind :-it occurs in the prophecies of Malachi, with which the Old Testament concludes. 'Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in my house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of HOSTS, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and

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2 Amos iv. 7.

pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.'

Such, you see, is the constant language of the Bible and be assured that God still shows mercy to the obedient, even in the way of these temporal blessings, and punishes disobedience by withholding them.

We are far too apt to forget God's absolute power over the seasons: we do not realize the notion, that for every thing, at every moment, we depend upon GOD and CHRIST: that as certainly as every thing was created by the ETERNAL WORD, so certainly does every thing 'consist' is held together, and supported in its existence-by HIM. Every moment there is, as it were, a new creation every thing is from GOD, the Giver of all good. It is He who gives us richly all things to enjoy; who, year after year, makes the earth yield her increase, and fills the heart of men with joy and gladness. Most assuredly, then, we should be led, both by God's mercy in giving us sufficient, often abundant harvests, and in His occasionally withholding that gift in part, and for a time refusing us the necessary rain and warmth, to remember that it is on Him only that we depend; and that a disobedient, unholy nation will be visited with His displeasure and wrath; with the sword, or the pestilence, or the famine. Let us see GoD in the general goings on of the world: let us see God in the works of nature: let us see in Him the sole provider of our wants and let us endeavour to pray to Him, with holy lips and obedient hearts, "to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them."

If that blessed GOD were to be extreme to mark what is amiss in us, if He were to deal with us strictly after our iniquities, what a fearful reckoning would be there! If all the drunkenness that is perpetually filling our towns and villages with its

own exceeding sinfulness, and all its hateful progeny of other vices; if all the dreadful amount of our fleshly sins; all our covetousness, grinding down the poor; all our luxury; all our pride; all our worldliness and forgetfulness of GOD; all our sins against CHRIST's law of charity, and love, and peacefulness, and purity and lowliness of mind-if all these things were to be at once visited upon us, then, indeed, the heavens above us would be iron, and the earth beneath us brass; we should see neither fertilizing rain, nor ripening sun; and three villages would go to one village for water to drink, and never be satisfied, till we had turned to GOD, and heard and listened to His voice, saying of CHRIST's law and the Holy Book, Here is the true and the right way; walk ye all in this, turning aside neither to the right hand, nor yet to the left.

Oh! that England-oh! that you and I, my brethren, would fully obey the prophet Hosea's exhortation to sow in righteousness; then should we reap in mercy : "For it is time to seek the LORD, and break up your fallow ground, till He come and RAIN RIGHTEOUSNESS upon you."

The Bible often speaks of God's grace, and of His word, as a gentle dew or a soft rain; and as the fruits of the field cannot grow, or cannot be ripened, unless God rains upon the thirsty crops, so the soul of man can bring no fruit to perfection, unless GOD sends down upon the soul the spiritual rain of His grace. And observe here, in the verse I have just quoted, how strongly and truly man's work and GOD'S blessing are joined together as both necessary. Man must sow; man must break up the fallow ground; and then God will rain righteousness upon him. For this righteousness he is indebted entirely to GOD; and yet he, too, must prepare his heart to receive the blessing from above. Unless he has endeavoured to prepare his heart, and to break up its fallow ground, it would be as idle to expect the

harvest of righteousness, as it would be to expect to fill your barns from land which you had never ploughed or sown.

There is, too, another great spiritual lesson to be drawn from the rain.

:

"The earth" (says the Apostle to the Hebrews) "which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from GoD: but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing: whose end is to be burned." If the earth has received abundance of rain from heaven, and yet bears no valuable crop, that land is utterly worthless. And so it is with the soil of the heart if the showers and dews of God's grace have come oft upon it, and yet no harvest of righteousness is gathered in, the soil of that heart is hopelessly barren: it cannot bear fruit for heaven. Often has the rain come upon us; the good word of GOD has been preached to us again and again ; the prayers of the Church have been offered for us and by us (by our lips, at least,) to Almighty God, and grace has been received at Baptism; and more grace has been perpetually offered us through the channels of prayer, and worship, and sacraments, and good works. If all this rain has not ripened

in us the fruits of holiness, the fruits which GOD, Who dresses the soil of the heart, looks for, then there is nothing else or better behind to beget holiness in us: there is no second Saviour to die for us; no other Gospel to be preached to us; no other and higher sacraments to support in us the divine life. That life, therefore, must die in us for want of support; the rains and dew of GOD'S grace will be withheld from us, till at last the destructive storm and whirlwind of His wrathful vengeance will sweep us away to misery. "The LORD alloweth the righteous: but the ungodly and him that delighteth in wickedness, doth His soul abhor.

Upon the ungodly He shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, storm and tempest: this shall be their portion to drink. For the righteous LORD loveth righteousness: his countenance will behold the thing that is just."

If all the people feared greatly the LORD and Samuel, when the thunder rolled along the sky in the days of wheat-harvest, what will be the greatness of our fear in that day of GoD's harvest, when the trump of the Archangel will ring through the world, and CHRIST will be seen in His glory, and the Angels, the ministers of His power (and in that power irresistibly strong), will separate the tares from the wheat, and bind the tares in bundles to burn them! Greatly shall we then fear the LORD and His CHRIST: but fear will be too late then : let us fear now: let us fear GOD now, and kiss the Son, lest He be angry. Let us now (in this our day of grace) strive to bring forth the fruit of good works to the glory of GoD, and the salvation of our souls.